Adding beads...

I've been experimenting a wee bit with adding extra beads to my necklaces and earrings...  what do you think?

Not sure what I think yet.... need to mull the idea over for a while!

I've also been working on some secret projects...

more on these at a later date!

New prototype earrings...

Well, I've been out of commission for a while being a bit under the weather, but I'm on the mend now :).  One good thing about my crafting is that it can be done with minimal expenditure of physical energy (...not including eyesight!).  


I've been working on some earring prototypes after being given a new idea (thanks Mum!).  I found some lovely vintaj patina metal blanks and earwires on Etsy, here, and have been seeing what I can turn them into.  Here are the results so far!

Clementine

Nous sommes du soleil

Nutmeg

Atoll

Orchid

Gamboge

I've been playing around with the idea of adding beads, as you can see with the 'Gamboge' pair.  I have some lovely findings from PatinaQueen and some fabulous beads from CaladoniaMarch  on the way - so once they arrive I will be able to try out a few more ideas.  I've been thinking about possibly adding a very few beads to my necklaces also - we'll see!

Aeluin...

Aeluin is my first finished 'Paisley'-shaped brooch prototype. She measure 7.5cm x 4.8cm at her longest and widest points.

I made Aeluin by felting onto thick black felt baize with my embellisher - using merino roving, silk threads, wool nepps and silk noil. I added hand embroidery and lots of glass beads, before whip-stitching around the edges in azure blue.

I decided to leave the back 'bare' this time - rather than covering it up with another piece of black felt before sewing on the brooch finding.

I'm not sure what I think about it - I like the fact that you can see all the stitching that's gone on, but sometimes I think it looks a bit messy. Any thoughts, anyone?

Although I'm not yet decided about what to do about the back, I really like the shape, so am working on the other prototypes...watch this space!

New necklace prototypes - at last!

Well, it's taken me a while (after the build-up to the craft fair in May, I couldn't face anymore whip-stitching for a good long while!) but I've finally finished a couple of new necklace prototypes.

Introducing 'Carnivale'

and 'Mer' ~!

Carnivale's felt is made from rainbow coloured silk throwsters waste, silk ribbon, cotton nepps and silk fibre, embellished with glass beads and hand embroidery.

Mer's felt is made from a beautiful turquoise mixed fibre batt from ArtemisArtemis - including fibres such as wool roving, bamboo, angelina and angora, which has then again been embellished with glass beads and hand embroidery.

No metal backing for the necklaces this time - just felt, so they are very lightweight.

Carnivale measures 8cm long by 2.5cm wide, on 45cm of chain...

...and Mer measures 9cm long by 2.5cm wide, again on 45cm of chain.

I'm definitely liking the curved shape, and I've added lots of wonderful new fibres to my stash recently from the likes of fibrespacesupplies, therainbowgirl, flightsofwhimzy, thredfairy, lalafelt, All Twisted Up, and Jacinta Leishman, so I'm feeling quite inspired to try a few more of these in both sizes :D

Progress update..

Here's what happened next!

The kumihimo bracelet (top) and felted, beaded and embroidered fibre art card (bottom) are now up in my etsy shop.

I'm not sure whether I've finished the middle project yet - think I'll mull it over for a while and see...!

Waves and coral...

I'm just back from a week on the beautiful Scottish Hebridean island of Tiree, so appropriately this entry is about 2 pieces I have recently finished which were inspired by the beautiful shorelines and seascapes of the island.

For both of them I wanted to explore combining fabric and fibres with my embellisher, and adding beading and embroidery as I do for my jewellery pieces, but on a larger scale. I decided to use embroidery hoops as frames, and I used unbleached cotton batting as the backing/surface.

The first piece is called 'Coral', and was made as a 30th birthday present for my dear friend Eli.

Here's the process of adding fabric and fibres. I sewed on pieces of cotton fabric, scrim and muslin, and then added silk throwsters waste, silk noil and mixed threads with my embellisher.

Next I added many glass beads in different shapes and sizes, and some hand embroidery stitches to finish the piece off:

Here are some details:

The next piece I have been working on is called 'Waves'. A while ago I had bought some (more!) wonderful handdyed threads, fibres and fabric from thredfairy, and had been itching to use them in a larger piece. I love the muted grey-silver-turquoise palette - reminds me of stormy seascapes and louring clouds above.

Here's the process - again I sewed on some fabric and paper pieces before adding fibres with my embellisher, and then adding glass beads and freshwater pearls. Hand embroidery stitches finished off the piece.

Here are some details:

And the finished piece:

It's going on the wall in my hall!

I'm quite pleased with the way these two turned out - kind of variations on a theme. Next time I'm going to experiment with different backing fabrics/surfaces, and will continue with the never-ending search for a good framing solution... .

The trip to Tiree gave me so much crafty inspiration, I'm looking forward to trying out all my ideas!

Necklace or brooch?

I finally got around to experimenting with one of my necklaces to see if I could make it into a brooch.  

I chose 'Marine': 

I removed the chain and firmly glued a 30mm brooch finding to her back, after sanding the metal surfaces with emery to make sure the glue could find purchase.

Here's how she turned out:

I'm going to change all the listings in my Etsy shop to reflect that it is now an option to have any of my 'bar'-type beaded, felted and embroidered necklaces made into a brooch instead!

Idea development...

In response to some helpful contructive criticism from a customer at the craft fair, I have begun developing  ideas for a new generation of my felted, beaded and embroidered necklaces.  

The comment was that my current necklace style:

...was too geometric for a necklace, and would work better as a brooch.  The suggestion was also made that a necklace with a more curved shape, to echo the curves of the neck and collarbone, would be an interesting idea.

So, I started thinking about how I could adapt my exisitng idea along these lines.  I like the general size of the necklaces as they are - not too big to work, but big enough to be able to fit in detail and interest without breaking my eyes!  The next consideration then is the curve.  A 'U' shape?  A more shallow curve?

I tried a few different shape ideas out on paper:

I liked the shallower curve with roundable corners best, so that is what I have decided to try out first to see how it goes.

Here is the shape at the embroidery and beading stage - I mask it out with paper to make sure I keep my threads and stitches within the perimeter.

Once the shape is decided, next comes the issue of the backing.  At the moment, the oblong necklaces are mounted onto a brass or aluminium metal tag cut to shape for me by Bopper of Etsy.  I figure it will be much more difficult cutting metal on a curve though, so I started thinking about alternative backing materials, and their pros and cons:

Polymer clay - easily shapeable but not sure it goes with the felt

Air-drying clay - again easily shapeable but probably too brittle

Wood - able to be curved (at least by my Dad ;D) and organic - but possibly not heavy enough?

Felt - easily shapeable, but again too light?

The two I have chosen to prototype are wood and felt.  That is felt baize to be precise - it's thick at 3mm and would give the necklace a bit more substance.

I decided to prototype 3 different lengths, to see which looks best as a finished piece.  My Dad cut these beautiful, thin, smooth wooden blanks for me (thanks Dad!) - the top 2 are Sycamore and the bottom one is Ash.

You can see the cut-out felted, beaded and embroidered necklace shapes on the left.

Here's a cross-section view of the felt on felt baize - pretty thick!

The idea is that for the felt baize, I would whip-stitch around the edges and the baize would form the necklace back.  For the wood, I would whip-stitch round the felt piece only and then set it onto the wooden blank.

I'm still working on these prototypes, so watch this space!  Any other suggestions or comments very welcome, as these ideas are very much a work in progress :) .

I also had a play around with some old necklace blanks to see if it was feasible to change them into brooches.  I've found some super-duper-superglue that seems to be strong enough (and not too messy!).

So the next stage is taking one of my exisiting necklaces and seeing if I can succesfully convert it. 

Apart from idea development, my crafty project to-do list is trundling along.  Here is a closeup of the beautiful Noro yarn I've been using to knit (yes, knit!!  amazing!!) a birthday present for a friend.

Mata ne~!

Taur-im-Duinath

I bought some amazing tussah silk roving from the wonderful Jacinta's Etsy shop - it was so beautiful that I had to make something with it right away!  The colourway was called 'Ironbark', and reminded me of forests.  I have been listening to the audiobook of the wonderful 'The Silmarillion' whilst crafting recently, and so Taur-im-Duinath came to life.

Taur-im-Duinath was a great, dark forest in the south of Beleriand in 'The Silmarillion'.

First of all I made the felt with my embellisher.  As well as the tussah silk, I used scrim, Cotswold locks (from another fantastic Etsy seller) ,  and wool roving.

To make sure I stuck to the basic shape of the pendant when it came to adding surface embellishment, I cut out a guide and tacked it onto the felt.  I then added more scrim, a metal bead and many more Toho Japanese glass beads as well as some tiny vintage Italian glass beads, as well as some hand embroidery (French and colonial knot, stem, split, chain and running stitches) in cotton and rayon threads.

To finish it off I whip-stitched around the edges with cotton thread.

The finished felt.

I mounted the felt onto a vintage brass tag to give it a good weight for hanging as a pendant, and then added some lovely delicate brass chain for the necklace.

The finished piece.

I really enjoyed making this necklace.  It feels like my ideas have evolved a bit since I last tried making a necklace in this way - particularly the idea to whip around the edges which tidies them up and frames the piece well.

Christmas presents... part 1

Recently I have been spending my crafting time making various Christmas presents.  I just finished two of them today - presents for my two neieces, Mathilde and Imme.  As they are both under 5 years old, I figured I wouldn't be spoiling any surprises by posting photos on the internet!I decided to make them both a nameplate, something that could go on a bedroom door or wall.  I remember how exciting it was to have my name on something when I was wee.  So, these aren't really exciting toy-type presents, but I hope they will be something the girls can keep over the years to come.

I wanted the two names to be quite different from each other in colour scheme.  I decided to go for polka dots on a cream background for Imme, and a turquoisy-blue theme for Mathilde.

First of all I made the base with my embellisher, using various fibres for colour and texture.  For Mathilde's piece, I felted scrim, tencel, bamboo, locks, roving and silk throwster's waste.

This is what the base for Imme's piece looked like when I had finished with my embellisher:

Next I embroidered on their names, and added lots of embroidery stitches for Mathilde, and lots of beads in a rainbow of colours for Imme.

To frame them, Chris fromWorksinWood on Etsy custom made me two lovely frames.  Mathilde's frame is Sycamore, and Imme's is Elm.  Thanks Chris!